How I build mental capital - 2016-05-09

I was trying to figure out something clever to post so I came up with this.
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This is a full trading day of the ES-mini. There is 19 arrows on the chart where trades should have been placed based on my rules. Of those 19 trades - the following is a break down:

1) 19 trades - one of them was premarket.
2) Of the 19, I was present at my desk for 12 of the possible trades.
3) Of the remaining 12,  I identified 8 of them ahead of time. The other 4 a few ticks too late.
4) Of the remaining 8, I chickened out of two and had unrealistic entry's for another 2.
5) Of the remaining 4, I got filled on 3 and should have been filled on the other.
6) Of the 3 that got filled, all 3 went to target but I chickened out of one before hand.
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Bottom line - I did okay but you might say - DT you could have made a ton of money today.
And yes I could have but I take pride that I watched the market for as long as I did and the fact if I followed my rules to the letter - I would have had 19 winners out of 19 trades. So I need to stick to my trading plan and push myself to take and hold on it more trades.
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I am having more and more days like this.
I just need to - DO IT.

Tuesday Trade Review 1/15/2008

I wish all days were this simple. I said I would go after the Big Mouth Stocks and I was given a gift from the trading gods today. If the stock is very thin, many times on these stocks, I will place an Ask just below the lowest Ask. I do that just before 8 am EST or 9:25 am EST is when a spike in buying may come in. If you do it at the 8 am time, I am hoping some idiot will buy at any price. Once in a great while it works and today was great.
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After I got out of the trade, I did not watch the market too closely. I had some guys doing some roof work today. I could have pressed my luck and maybe got close to a grand out of the trade. With out watching the market closely, I missed two trades in EMC another Big Mouth Stock.
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I am just happy with a good day.
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The numbers:
Stocks: gross +627 net +624 shares 400
Stock Futures: none
Other Futures: none
Forex: none

Monday Trade Review 10/22/2007

This has been my trading plan for XHB. Once we had massive volume that one day, I was thinking it was a good candidate to bottom fish for swing trades. Each time it came down to test a new low, buy a 1/2 position with the idea of selling the first rally or buying a second 1/2 about 1.25 points lower (5%). I had never tried something like this before. I has not thinking this way for the first buy. The second buy I was planning to make but somehow missed it. The third worked perfectly for me. The fourth I bought and the double buy but sold a little early because I was going to be traveling with no PC access. The fifth I took and just missed the double buy when it took off like crazy. I did not want to stay in this position for long not having a good outlook for this market.



This is an inter day chart of the XHB swing trade.



Also today, I was trying to buy stocks on the morning drip. I was not being aggressive enough but I did catch one - DSX (in fact twice). The second buy I should have held on to longer but by the time I caught this one DRYS looked like it was running out of steam. I hate playing the knife game unless it is with Big Month Stocks.
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With the big move in my swing today - I have dug myself out of the whole for the month. It is not a lot of money but I am having a lot of mental trading problems right now. I need to get my head on straight.
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The numbers:
Stocks: Gross +236 Net +215 shares traded 4000
Stock Futures: none
Other Futures: none
Forex: none

My Job is killing me 8/3/2007

It was a crazy and great day in the MT chat room. Things were really slow until the market dived at 2 PM this afternoon. This just kills me because I am running around between home and work and doing other job related things missing these great trades. I am proud of myself because in the slow morning I was out trading MT! but I missed my EURO trade (see below) and was pissed. Then I missed the bringing of the sell off and never could get a trade pulled off at work.
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Regardless, MT has spent a lot of time this week explaining his trades. This has been a great learning experience. He is not trading some black box but just simple chart patterns, indicators and so forth. None of the trading I have posted here has been a black box. I believe in learning the markets by the patterns and the feel. No, silly computers here. This is why I enjoy MT's chat room because I am learning so much (and I am an old fart).
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Above I posted the charts of the YM futures. Do not take my notes as being perfect. I might here missed a trade or two (again I am at work but on a very slow Friday) but that is a sample of the trade points late in the day that I remembered.
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Again I will point out -why I am not making a ton of money off of MT's chat room is because work gets in the way most of the time or I just try to out trade him (stupid idea 99 percent of the time). I will be taking a break from work and get sometime to trade full time. I can't wait.

This was an example of MT's only stock trade today. He has not been trading much stock since the market started going a little nuts but look at the entry and exit point - how more perfect could it be?

Again to prove I am NOT a MT robot, I came so damn close to pulling out a great day trade in the EURO. I always watch the first reaction to the news, give it about 15 minutes and go with the trend. Many times two things happen - the currency runs away from a small range area just to come back to it and then run away again - like above. You buy/sell it when it gets back into the range using the range as your stop loss.

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Or it will run in one way, pull back but not to its small range, then fail to take the initial move. You then go against the initial move using the max of the initial move as your stop. So many times you can get 50 pips out of a trade like this with little risk.

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The numbers:

Stocks: no trades

Stock Futures: Gross +200 Net +190 contracts traded 4

Forex: none (damn again)

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Again MT's chat has a week's trial for only $25. His results are here. No BS. I have been there and I know the results are correct. In today's chaos, MT had one break even trade and all the rest I believe went for gains (I could be wrong) but he is human. He left a lot of money on the table today.

Mental Game 7/30/2007

Trading is such a mental game. The knowledge of the markets, trading patterns, even an edge I all know or have but the mental part is where I come short. I truly believe if I took all the trades I see I could have a 70% win ratio because I wait for the good setups. I also believe I would have bigger winners than losers on average. The combination of the two would be a winning trader. The stupid little thing call fear comes in to play. That is what is holding me back.
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I have for the most part conquered my fear in Racket Ball. Fear in Racket Ball??? Let me explain. When I played in the past against players equal or better than me, I would think ok if I can score X number of points I have a chance. Maybe if he has a bad day. And so forth. I was not thinking about winning but how close of a lose or game I could make it. This stupid mind set would never allow me to play my best. So players not as good as me, I know that and I would kick there ass. Players equal to me, I would a good chance of choking. Players better than me - I got killed.
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One day, a friend of mine asked me why I seemed to be a good player but played so poorly and I explained how I thought. He said I was an idiot. One point in the match has little to do with any other point. If you f-ed up a point or a play that does not have an effect on another. (Somehow does this sound like trading???). That you take each point of each game as a single event trying to win just that one point and forget the rest. How do you beat someone better than you one point at a time.
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It is weird now. By changing my thought process, I am destroying people on the court that I once feared to play because I would look bad. One gentlemen tonight I play, I usually beat very easily. He had a few good serves and I f-ed up a point or two and suddenly I was down 10-1 in a 15 point game. I paused and then took him apart one point at a time. After I closed the game within 11-8 his favor still, he died on his own mentally losing it on his own. It was funny. Once I had made the scored 10 to 4, I felt that I had already won the game and all I had to do was finish it. I then played a second match against a former feared opponent. I killed him. He looked at me after the game and said I played well and he had a bad night. I just said to myself - "I just now know I can beat you and I will".
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All of this relates to trading. I do the mental mistake of making each trade really important when it is not. It is just one trade in a long series of trades during a very long game called the market.
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I am amazed at traders like MT, Gary and Pinoy. From the way they seem to approach the market mentally, it is like they have already won when they get up each morning and if they don't, they will just win tomorrow then. No big deal.
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I can't wait to get into that mental state.
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I did good today. I doubled my best futures day again today.
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The numbers:
Stocks: none
Stock futures: Gross $520 net $474.16 contracts 20
Forex: none but I am getting excited about going short the Euro